1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to secure transactions. More particularly, the present invention relates to utilizing SMS technology and features for the purpose of establishing secure encrypted transactions.
2. Description of Related Art
In a wireless network, terminals, such as wireless telephones, may be used to communicate in a variety of ways. For example, a simple wireless telephone is used to convey speech, but more sophisticated telephones may be used to send text messages. A popular service for sending text messages utilizes terminals having the Short Messages Services (SMS) feature. The most widely used application of SMS is for wireless telephone users to send short alphanumeric messages to one another. Other SMS applications include receiving e-mail alerts, such as when a longer e-mail was received by the user or when a stock reaches a certain price.
Though popular, SMS has not been widely used for applications that require secure transactions. While the SMS feature built into many wireless telephones is useful for normal communications, secure transactions, such as credit card transactions, require a higher level of security that includes encryption.
A relatively new standard for mobile communication is the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). Though this system is capable of providing secure communications the system requires greater bandwidth than SMS and is not widely available at this time. While it is generally true that SMS can be implemented on UMTS systems, the disadvantages of UMTS remain. Thus UMTS is not available or not feasible for most wireless systems in use today.